To say that the Wii U has been a disappointment for Nintendo would be an understatement. The Wii U has been a sales dud for quite some time, and developers have shied away from devoting resources to produce games for the platform.

The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet. Nintendo are walking dead at this point…Instead, they make this awful console. It is an utterly intentional decision to focus our resources on markets which actually matter.

Well, the bad news just keeps rolling in for Nintendo. The company today announced that it only sold 160,000 Wii U consoles worldwide for the second quarter (April – June 2013). That number is far below the 390,000 units it sold during the first quarter.

“For the ‘Wii U’ system, we will attempt to concentrate on proactively releasing key first-party titles from the second half of this year through next year to regain momentum for the platform,” said Nintendo in its earnings release.

“Nintendo strives to improve the sales by communicating the compelling nature of our hardware and software to as many people as possible through our new network service called “Miiverse,” which offers an environment where people can empathize with others and share their gaming experiences. We also strive to improve hardware profitability by reducing its costs.”

If Nintendo thinks that it's having a hard time right now with Wii U sales, the impending release of Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4 isn’t going to make selling the console to gamers any easier.

Speaking as someone who pays off the credit card in full every month: I bought a Wii because it looked like fun. I haven't bought a Wii U because it doesn't. Full stop. End of story. How long has the Wii U been out now? And I continue to see no compelling reason to get one. If they haven't caught the attention of an upper middle class gamer with kids by now, I highly doubt they will in the future.

A Wii U comeback may not be likely, but it wouldn't be unprecedented. The PS3 struggled initially (remember the Sony exec offering a bounty if you found a PS3 on a retail shelf) but recovered quite nicely. The 3DS also struggled initially (huge price drop + ambassador awards for early adopters) but a recent influx of strong exclusive titles has sales surging.

However, I will admit the Wii U is looking more like the failing Dreamcast that the PS3 or 3DS at the moment. If Pikmin, Super Smash Bros and a Zelda remake is all that Nintendo has got up its sleeve, they are in trouble. Also, Nintendo needs to revamp the eShop because it is a trainwreck in terms of storefront design standpoint. Nintendo also needs to run more eShop sales.

One quick, easy and cheap fix would be for Nintendo to draw from its vast pool of legacy exclusive titles and offer those for free, at a discount, or as rewards using their coins reward system, which is laughably under-advertised.

quote: The exec's quote indicates very strong sales, i.e. stores cannot keep them in stock. How then does that equate to "struggling"?

People reacted to this quote with derision as it was false bravado. The PS3 was easy enough to find, if you were willing to spend the $500/$600. It didn't struggle the way the Wii U is, but it didn't meet Sony's expectations. By March 2007, Sony predicted 6 million units sold, but only had moved 3.68 million.

For comparison, by March 2013, the Wii U has sold 3.45 million units. If we are talking launch window struggles, these numbers are very similar. Obviously the big difference is that sales of the PS3 noticeably improved from this point forward, things aren't looking that way for the Wii U.

People bought the Wii because it was fun, simple and unique. The Wii U isn’t.

Hard core gamers will stick with their hard core consoles, and casual gamers will download angry birds and buy a DS for their super Mario fix. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the amazing super Mario franchise, I think Wii U sales would be even lower.